One size doesn’t fit all. We all know that. Evidently, there has been a growing awareness of the necessity to bring about a change in the traditional teaching approach, to shift from the lecture mode, where the control is in the hands of the teacher, to a much more learner centred approach, where teachers are not just  experts, or walking-encyclopaedias (as most students assume and opine). They are more of a facilitator, promoting autonomy for their learners thus guiding them to identify their calling.

Relinquishing control might seem unnerving sometimes, but passively listening to an expert is not worthwhile, either. Hence, how shall high-order thinking be emphasized in classrooms? How can active learning be spurred?

Providing a balance or coexistence of what seem to be opposites may provide the greatest opportunities for a successful education system, since simple solutions are unlikely to be effective.

According to New England Complex Systems Institute, the answers are:

• Integrating the commonly polarized goals of education; i.e. the goal that focuses on transmitting knowledge with the goal that emphasizes the development of the individual student.
• Adapting teaching to different student characteristics by using diverse methods of teaching. Adaptation to the ability levels, patterns of different abilities, learning styles, personality characteristics, and cultural backgrounds.
• Integrating the curriculum by developing inter-disciplinary curriculum units that enable students to acquire knowledge from different disciplines through a unifying theme while having the opportunity to contribute in different and special ways to the objectives of the integrated units.

Changing Education Paradigm can also be an eye-opener for many.

Educators have the key to transform the world, and since we are blessed with this magical power, we might as well employ it to revolutionise the world through the greatest gift humans are bestowed with: education, knowledge.

I invite you all, readers, to share your opinions here for an engaging discussion.

Thank you for reading.